The Principles of Editing

Book editing can be a grueling process, and if you are not used to doing critiques on your own work, you may end up passing through errors without even realizing to do the necessary corrections. However, because editing is very important for you to be able to come up with quality work that is worth showing to people, learning the basic principles on how to organize and condense your manuscript the right way can surely save the reputation of your masterpiece in many ways.

As Much As Possible, Be Concise

One common mistake that a lot of writers often commit is beating around the bush. Many may often include a lot of unnecessary content in their work without even realizing that they are doing this. And so, in editing your own work, make sure that you eliminate as much clutter as you can.

Clutter may often appear in your work through the useless and repetitive use of words in the same sentences. For example, when saying the statement, the hasty brisk way that she talks we may get the impression that the words included may add drama, but upon close analysis, the words hasty and brisk actually mean the same thing.

Vary The Structure Of Your Sentences

Aside from the fact that it may make you sound like a first grader, always writing your sentences by beginning it with the main subject and then followed by the verb, your readers might find your writing style dull and choppy. Another principle of editing that you must learn is to vary the structure of your sentences.

For example, saying, because I ate too much, I gained a lot of weight sounds so much better than saying, I ate too much. I gained a lot of weight The first phrase does not only sound better and less monotonous, but it is also easier to understand.

Varying the length and structure of your sentences, a smoother and more conversational tone, instead of sounding as if you have just learned how to write and speak in the English language. Thus, your readers can relate to your piece more and understand it better.

As Much As Possible, Make Use Of An Active Voice

By replacing to be verbs with active verbs, you can change your statement from a passive voice into an active one. For example, it would be much better to say, Anna ate the apple rather than the apple was eaten by Anna In this way, you can avoid leading your readers to become confused on who the doer of the action is in your statements.

The use of an active voice in writing is another principle that you must keep in mind when you edit. This helps keep the interest of your readers because unlike a passive tone of writing, it does not drag your point. Therefore with this, you are actually preventing the chance of boring your readers.

Clarity, Cohesion And Coherence

The three C's in writing, otherwise known as clarity, cohesion and coherence can also serve as very useful tools when it comes to editing your work. Remember that for your book to truly speak out to readers, you must be able to evoke a response that people can see what you are trying to say. And this can of course, be achieved by making sure that your words are clear, connected and coherent.

For your work to become clear, avoid using a lot of jargon or unnecessary words that may only contribute to confusion. As mentioned previously, keeping your book as concise and as simple as possible will be the best way to make sure that people can easily get your point better.

In editing, make sure that sentences and paragraphs clearly stick together One trick for this is by using transitional words and phrases like therefore, or and so. These can show the relationship between your phrases and could help you get a clear point across instead of a choppy run-in composition.

And lastly, in order to achieve coherence, you must follow such basic principles of writing and editing as the ones mentioned above. Sometimes, it may not be your entire fault as the writer or editor if your readers don't fully understand your work as a lot of factors can affect this. However, you can surely make things easier for your readers by using correct grammar and being cohesive and direct to the point with your approach on writing.

To assure that you are passing out quality work to the public, editing is an essential process. Although it may be quite taxing at first, especially if you are not used to finding errors in your own work, as long as you take in mind the basic principles, then you will later on see how this process will not only help you to make the best out of what you have done, but this can even help you improve your writing style in so many ways.